Category Archives: Cancer

Devoted wife fears she could lose lifeline

May 22, 2012   Cancer, Carers, dementia, ukcuts

COMMITMENT … loyal wife Betty Greenwell is determined to take care of ailing husband Wilf.

By PAUL KELLY
Published on Tuesday 22 May 2012 17:30

A LOYAL wife of a dementia sufferer with cancer has told of her fears over a vital support service they could lose.

The Home Support Service provides a lifeline for Betty Greenwell, 75, of Lilburn Close, East Boldon.

Betty is a devoted carer at home for her dementia-stricken husband Wilf, 86.

The couple were both widowed when they married 13 years ago and made a pledge to care for each other ‘in sickness and in health’.

It’s a commitment loving Betty is determined to see through as her husband also battles bowel cancer.

But she is angry that the future of the support service, funded jointly by South Tyneside Council and the borough’s Primary Care Trust (PCT), is uncertain.

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As sickness benefit cuts take effect, thousands face hard times

April 29, 2012   Cancer, Carers, Depression, disability, mental health

Fears those too ill to work will be unable to meet basic living costs as government limits contributory allowance to 365 days

 

Jenny Wheatley who was made redundant due to her anxiety and depression will lose her ESA as her husband earns £18,000.
Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian

It all began with a telephone call. Earlier this month, Malcolm Parker, who has not worked since his spine collapsed three years ago, was rung out of the blue by an official from the Department of Work and Pensions. There was only one question: did his wife work more than 24 hours a week? Yes, said Parker, reasoning honesty was the best policy.

A fortnight later a letter dropped on the Parkers’ doormat. The department wrote bluntly to say his contributory employment and support allowance (ESA) would disappear on Monday.

Parker was taken aback. Having worked for 44 years in the construction trade and diligently paid his national insurance, he had expected to be protected should the worst happen. His wife Ruth was at first perplexed and then increasingly angry. Although her husband can visit the toilet by himself, with some difficulty, she comes home every lunchtime to feed and check on him.

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WHO calls for a rethink of conventional definitions of what it means to be ‘old’

April 6, 2012   Cancer, Carers, family, health, Older care

Good health adds life to years

Edited by Jane Hill editor@wellbeingnorfolk.co.uk
On World Health Day [7 April], the World Health Organization [WHO] is calling for urgent action to ensure that, at a time when the world’s population is ageing rapidly, people reach old age in the best possible health.
In the next few years, for the first time, there will be more people in the world aged over 60 than children aged less than five. By 2050, 80 per cent of the world’s older people will be living in low– and middle–income countries.
The main health challenges for older people everywhere are non–communicable diseases, such as heart disease, stroke, cancer, diabetes, and lung disease.

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